The egg, this magical and useful food, brings many people together through an abundance of recipes, whether it is the star of a dish or just one of the ingredients.
On Sunday October 13, eggs in meurette were in the spotlight at the Château du Clos de Vougeot, in Côte-d’Or during the 2024 world championship. This is the sixth edition of the event. created by the general intendant of the brotherhood of knights of Tastevin, Arnaud Orsel. In 2021, Prince Albert II of Monaco even participated as a juror. The godfather this year is the three-star chef, Georges Blanc.
What is egg meurette?
Egg meurette is one of the most emblematic recipes of Burgundy. Originally, it’s an anti-waste recipe. Indeed, the latter comes from Burgundy beef, also originating from Burgundy. Often, the pieces of beef were eaten entirely without taking into account the remaining sauce. To avoid throwing it away, we had the idea of using it to poach eggs. Moreover, “meurette” refers to the sauce of traditional beef bourguignon.
Nowadays, we no longer wait to make a beef bourguignon before cooking an oeuf en meurette, we prepare the sauce specially for this dish, which has in turn become a classic of French gastronomy. Whoever cooks a beef does not necessarily cook an egg and vice versa. The original recipe includes eggs, butter, onions, bacon, white vinegar, sugar, a bouquet garni, and of course Burgundy wine.
How far can you revisit a recipe without risking creating another dish?
“You shouldn’t go too far, but add small changes. We can allow ourselves two or three new things, but not too much otherwise there is no spirit of the oeuf meurette” specifies the 2024 world champion, Jérémie Muller, to France 3 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
The Alsatian chef, who currently works in Quebec, also offers us a summary of his champion recipe. First of all, the sauce: “composed of beef, a reduced wine seasoned with a garnish of bacon, a classic reduced wine, a not too aged Côte de Bourgogne and a meat glaze. There is chemistry work. If we only add meat glaze, the sauce will be pasty, so we bring back the beef for a little clarity and then it’s the wine that does everything else.”
For the main element, the egg, he speaks of subtlety, modern and fun: “I injected a little parsley inside the yolk to have a little surprise when cutting the egg.” Jérémie Muller will offer his eggs en meurette in his stronghold in Montreal, the Helena restaurant. “They will be à la carte in the same way they were prepared during the competition. It will be the same recipe.”
An accessible recipe
“A meurette must remain a meurette, a dish in sauce with wine. We have to keep the base. » At home, you can try the basic recipe for eggs en meurette. But sometimes with daring – for example by playing with the filling – you can win the creativity prize of this egg meurette championship as the Japanese chef Yu Sugimoto did by creating a fake macaron with mushrooms turned.
If you also want to try this championship, the amateur part exists. Notice to those interested for the 2025 edition!
